"I wrote to the church but, Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeninence among them, receiveth us not", "Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against s with malicious words and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receiveth the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church."

I wish to bring this message today about a subject and an individual, that most churches have within their ranks.
I wanted to bring to your attention that we still have these type people in our churches, just as they did in Biblical times. Now, let's look at this person.

I. He is Self-appointed:

A, This is 180 degrees from what Christ taught. Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

If we look at the first church, in the book of Acts:
1. Church governship is by the church's will, not the church boss,
2, In Acts Chpt. 6, the church chose the Deacons.
a. Deacon means "servant or table waiter"

B, Diotrephes--mentioned in our text, had a real problem with pride. Notice is says in our text, "he loved the preeminence". He had "little king" syndrome!!!!!!

Peter in the book of I Peter Chpt. 5 vs 2-3 warns about those who would "lord over the flock"!!!!!!!
"neither as being lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the flock".

C, Notice in our text is the words "malicious words". Malicious thoughts precede malicious words!!!!!!!
1. Arrogant lips speak bitterness and contempt. "I am the boss here"!!!!!

D. They are presumptious: They presume to run the church and nothing gets done or is done unless they
approve it first.

Here is the root of these type people, who have this "boss mentality"!!!!!
1. They are very insecure people.
2, They want to play the role as boss because they are inadequate to do anything else.
3, They are filled with pride, arrogance and self and all of these things are "spiritual issues that they will not
deal with.
It's a shame to say but, some of these type people, may not even be saved themselves. They may be church
members or maybe even a church officer but, neither of these positions, guarantee salvation.

These people are completely out of God's will but, they are blinded by pride and self, that they can't see it.
These church "bosses" will reveal themselves sooner or later, by their conversation and here's why.
1. They have no humility
2, They have no repentance
3, They have no compassion
4. They have out of control behavior towards others, especially when questioned.

People who fall into these categories must be deal with or, they will and can destroy a church.

I had this personally happen, in the church I Pastored for 5-1/2 years.

We had a Deacon who was boastful and always right. He knew more than anyone else and His way was the only way to do anything,. If anyone questioned him, they set themselves up for verbal abuse in front of other board members.

He was talked to by the Elder of the church and for a week or so, he quieted down but, he came right back doing the same thing again. He was talked to again by the Elder of the church, which I objected to. The Elder should have taken another elder with him but, when the other elder asked to accompany him to talk to this Deacon, the senior Elder refused him that right.

On 2 different occasions, I tried to get the Elders to remove this man as Deacon. One of the Elders agreed with me, both times, but, the senior Elder refused to act to remove this Deacon. After much prayer, I met with the Elders and told them that if they were not prepared to remove this Deacon from office, that I was prepared to take this issue before the church Congregation. The Senior Elder refused me that right as well.

With the Elders deadlocked, and the Senior Elder not allowing me, as Pastor, to bring this issue before the congregation, I had one other option left and that was to resign. I informed the Elders that if this Deacon was not removed from office, which according to our church by-laws, they had the authority to do so, I would resign as Pastor of the church. This Deacon had refused to attend my Sunday School class, he refused to speak to me, unless I spoke first, and he would not shake my hand unless I extended mine first, This had gone on for almost 7 months, I had cited 10 different occasions when this Deacon had jumped on someone verbally, had slandered someone, or had made false charges against members of the church, which were proven to be false.

The Church board was not even allowed to vote. The Senior Elder told them that they were not going to remove this Deacon from office and that they would see if I was serious or bluffing about my resignation.
When they sent their decision to me 2 weeks later, I resigned the following Sunday.

Upon my resignation, the church had a membership of over 100. We started with 6 in 2006. In my tenure there, we had 48 saved and 56 baptized. We were debt free and the church had a good bank account. This was in June of this year.

Now, they have about 35 attending. Their offerings have been reduced by 2/3rds and, those who have attended since I left says, it is not the same and never will be again.

Satan used 1 man and 1 Elder, who were both filled with pride and the church was almost destroyed because of it.

This is a personal example of how these "Church Bosses" can destroy a church, a fellowship and friendships. These things ought not to be.

Have a good week.

Oldbiker